Kinetic Evaluations for the Transportation of Dangerous Chemical Compounds

Abstract

Current legislation about goods carriage (ADR - Agreement Concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road) sets the determination of several parameters related to the conditions of the used containers. Several of these parameters are required for the substance classification and the definition of the precautions to be adopted during transportation. One of the main potential hazards during freight is related to the thermal decomposition of the substance.
Testing for the identification of decomposition in the carriage conditions can be time consuming and expensive, therefore different solutions have been attempted to simulate thermal behaviour of chemical compounds during transportation.
This work focuses on the analysis of such methods and, in particular, on the model free methods for the determination of the decomposition kinetic of the studied compounds. This model is able to fit the kinetic behaviour of complex decomposition mechanisms more than others. The kinetic developed can be subsequently used to develop predictive models for the evaluation of transportation parameters, as for example the Self Accelerating Decomposition Temperature – SADT, but also to track the product quality during time aging.
Input data for this analysis are Differential Scanning Calorimetric (DSC) tests. They are safe, quick and cheap and can give important information about thermal behaviour of the studied substances.
The model free methodology and the SADT determination has been performed for the decomposition of two different organic peroxides and a solid compound.